Prior art conventional training methods and systems rely only on subjective symptoms of hypoxia to determine the point at which the user must don his oxygen mask. Such symptoms may include: confusion, fast heart rate, rapid breathing, shortness of breath, tunnel vision, and tingling of the extremities. Measurable quantitative physiological symptoms have not been used.
These conventional training methods and systems have remained arbitrary and unchanged for over 50 years and do not utilize realistic flight scenarios nor rely on objective and/or true physiological parameters. Conventional training methods and systems do not utilize flight simulators or realistic ATC (air traffic controller) communications, nor do they use biomedical monitoring to determine endpoints (i.e., the time at which the user should don his mask).
In addition, these conventional training methods do not provide individualized training for recognizing or predicting the onset of hypoxia. Instead, the training is performed in large group settings, which are not consistent with the ergonomic or human factors model of cockpit training.